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Speech by Student’s Representative, Jeffrey Jing Tian, at the Opening Ceremony of Fordham University’s MSGF Program

Apr 18-2013   



Speech by Student’s Representative, Jeffrey Jing Tian, at the Opening Ceremony of Fordham University’s MSGF Program 

National School of Development, Peking University 

9 June, 2010

Vice President Freedman, Dr. Wu, Vice Chairman Frucher, Dr. Yang, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen: 

I am indeed very honored to represent this group of this young, talented, capable and outstanding BIMBA students to speak to this distinguished audience. In early July many of us in this room will set our feet on a long waited learning trip to the city of New York and on the campus of Fordham University in downtown Manhattan to pursue our degree for Master of Science in Global Finance. We know that the journey ahead of us is not an easy one, but we are determined to go, because we understand how important it is to perceive, to understand and to explore things by adopting a global financial vision. 

As we keep hearing the complaints from the Germans against having a most expensive friend of Greece, and as we began to see the rippling effect from Greek debt crisis to Hungary, Spain, Portugal and even UK, it is increasingly alerted that the world should be more prepared for a second dip of the global financial crisis. What is the root cause of the European debt crisis? What will be the fate of Euro and the future Europe? Why is Europe’s debt crisis so important to the rest of the world? It seems that we cannot explore the answers to these questions without a global financial vision. 

This financial crisis has changed the entire world. It has changed the way we think, we behave, and we react. It has also changed our appetite for risks and opportunities. Even though there’s a consensus that the worst of the crisis has gone, there will still be long debate, research and contemplation on the actual cause of this unprecedented crisis. Many issues will remain doubtful. Questions like how should the US regulators better control the size of financial institutions and avoid those too big to fail cases? How should Federal Reserve best manage its interest rate so that the post crisis rally will not be affected by “exit policies”? Again we cannot know these without a global financial vision. 

Yet, we are so far certain about only one thing: this crisis is both created and to be solved by financial factors. 

The world that we live in today has never been smaller. The information technology and free access to capital market are allowing the movements of capital in a faster and more efficient way than ever before. In such a financially interwoven world, no one can live without the effect of world financial markets. 

The intangible force of today’s financial and capital market is playing such a unique role that no one can live without its impacts. The capability of a country’s control over the rules of international money flow and the control over the risk of its own currency value would always decide the competitiveness of the country. Believe it or not, monetary tools are more applied by policy makers of a country as weapon to attack others even in a peaceful world. 

Over the last three decades, China’s economy has been the most rapidly growing economy in the world. Today China is at a critical transformation of its economic and social structure. As the world is talking about building Shanghai as a global financial center, China’s capital market still needs to be more open, transparent and better regulated. RMB will have to be convertible on both current and capital account. Without a liberalized personal income tax system and matured regulatory environment to attract foreign financial talents, Shanghai will just never become a true international financial hub. 

Fordham’s MSGF program is just functioning as a bridge that links this group of talented young men and women to the attractive world of global finance. 

I believe that at the end of this program we may not be excited about the skills, knowledge, or information that we gain from the one month learning in Fordham, but we will be excited about the ideas, theories, mindsets and interpretations of challenging issues in global finance. 

To many of us, this learning program is like a dream coming true, because many of us cannot abandon our jobs while pursuing a second master’s degree on a full time basis. I’m sure that no boss will be happy to see his staff to leave for a whole year to study for a degree. MSGF has just given us a light of hope. The essence of learning lies in its power instead of its length. At the end of this program, several EMBA members of our group will able to have a secondary degree from Fordham while enjoying the great benefits of their first degree offered by Peking University. How lucky we are? 

At this moment, I want to represent the whole group to express our gratitude to Peking University and Fordham University. Thank you for having organized such a great program. Dr. Wu and Mr. Freedman, we appreciate your leadership and vision in creating the partnership between Peking University and Fordham. The 12-year collaborations that you built is just like a successful marriage. MSGF is obviously a good baby of that happy marriage. Thank you for the pioneering efforts and spirits you have demonstrated when you pave the way for this first ever MSGF program. Thank you for your opening such a remarkable door and connecting us to the beautiful world of science in global finance. 

One person in this room has helped us enormously to realize our dream of learning. That is Dr. John Yang, who is such an enthusiastic teacher and leader sharing with us all of his resources and talents. He is such a generous person who teaches the great value of leadership not by speaking but by delivering. Please allow me to thank you on behalf of the whole class for your tireless and dedicated efforts build up his great learning program for us. Thank you for providing us the real power of learning. 

As many of us enjoy the great benefits from the scholarships provided by the Program, we owe our thanks to Nasdaq OMX which is represented by Mr. Meyer Frucher. At the end of the program, we will prove to you that your forward looking decision to sponsor the MSGF program is a wise and correct one. I have to say that Nasdaq is very smart in sponsoring this very smart group of students. We have full confidence that some of us in this room will be able to list their business in Nasdaq and to prove to the world investors the value of Chinese business catalyst. 

We, the members of this class are representing the most lucky generation in the 60-year history of this great country. Many of us already have good life, good money and good social status. Many of us don’t need to earn a second master degree either to get promoted or to get a higher pay. However, we consider the aim of this learning as a duty rather than a mission. We, as the biggest beneficiaries of China’s economic success, must take up a duty to make sure that we contribute to China’s important integration into the world from the financial perspective. 

One thing I’m sure is that after this learning journey we will have more questions than answers, we will ask more than we respond, we will think more than we understand. But, the most important of all, is that we will act more than we plan. 

With the strong horizon we gain from MSGF, we will meet future challenges of this changing country. Because in the future of China, no one can get respect simply from how much he makes or how high he sits, instead we can only earn our respect by making our best efforts to bring hope to others. 

There are many other challenges for us to meet as well. With the power of learning, there’s no doubt, we will win. That is the hope we believe in, and the hope you all can believe in. 



Thank you very much.

 

Speech by Student’s Representative, Jeffrey Jing Tian, at the Opening Ceremony of Fordham University’s MSGF Program

Apr 18-2013   



Speech by Student’s Representative, Jeffrey Jing Tian, at the Opening Ceremony of Fordham University’s MSGF Program 

National School of Development, Peking University 

9 June, 2010

Vice President Freedman, Dr. Wu, Vice Chairman Frucher, Dr. Yang, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen: 

I am indeed very honored to represent this group of this young, talented, capable and outstanding BIMBA students to speak to this distinguished audience. In early July many of us in this room will set our feet on a long waited learning trip to the city of New York and on the campus of Fordham University in downtown Manhattan to pursue our degree for Master of Science in Global Finance. We know that the journey ahead of us is not an easy one, but we are determined to go, because we understand how important it is to perceive, to understand and to explore things by adopting a global financial vision. 

As we keep hearing the complaints from the Germans against having a most expensive friend of Greece, and as we began to see the rippling effect from Greek debt crisis to Hungary, Spain, Portugal and even UK, it is increasingly alerted that the world should be more prepared for a second dip of the global financial crisis. What is the root cause of the European debt crisis? What will be the fate of Euro and the future Europe? Why is Europe’s debt crisis so important to the rest of the world? It seems that we cannot explore the answers to these questions without a global financial vision. 

This financial crisis has changed the entire world. It has changed the way we think, we behave, and we react. It has also changed our appetite for risks and opportunities. Even though there’s a consensus that the worst of the crisis has gone, there will still be long debate, research and contemplation on the actual cause of this unprecedented crisis. Many issues will remain doubtful. Questions like how should the US regulators better control the size of financial institutions and avoid those too big to fail cases? How should Federal Reserve best manage its interest rate so that the post crisis rally will not be affected by “exit policies”? Again we cannot know these without a global financial vision. 

Yet, we are so far certain about only one thing: this crisis is both created and to be solved by financial factors. 

The world that we live in today has never been smaller. The information technology and free access to capital market are allowing the movements of capital in a faster and more efficient way than ever before. In such a financially interwoven world, no one can live without the effect of world financial markets. 

The intangible force of today’s financial and capital market is playing such a unique role that no one can live without its impacts. The capability of a country’s control over the rules of international money flow and the control over the risk of its own currency value would always decide the competitiveness of the country. Believe it or not, monetary tools are more applied by policy makers of a country as weapon to attack others even in a peaceful world. 

Over the last three decades, China’s economy has been the most rapidly growing economy in the world. Today China is at a critical transformation of its economic and social structure. As the world is talking about building Shanghai as a global financial center, China’s capital market still needs to be more open, transparent and better regulated. RMB will have to be convertible on both current and capital account. Without a liberalized personal income tax system and matured regulatory environment to attract foreign financial talents, Shanghai will just never become a true international financial hub. 

Fordham’s MSGF program is just functioning as a bridge that links this group of talented young men and women to the attractive world of global finance. 

I believe that at the end of this program we may not be excited about the skills, knowledge, or information that we gain from the one month learning in Fordham, but we will be excited about the ideas, theories, mindsets and interpretations of challenging issues in global finance. 

To many of us, this learning program is like a dream coming true, because many of us cannot abandon our jobs while pursuing a second master’s degree on a full time basis. I’m sure that no boss will be happy to see his staff to leave for a whole year to study for a degree. MSGF has just given us a light of hope. The essence of learning lies in its power instead of its length. At the end of this program, several EMBA members of our group will able to have a secondary degree from Fordham while enjoying the great benefits of their first degree offered by Peking University. How lucky we are? 

At this moment, I want to represent the whole group to express our gratitude to Peking University and Fordham University. Thank you for having organized such a great program. Dr. Wu and Mr. Freedman, we appreciate your leadership and vision in creating the partnership between Peking University and Fordham. The 12-year collaborations that you built is just like a successful marriage. MSGF is obviously a good baby of that happy marriage. Thank you for the pioneering efforts and spirits you have demonstrated when you pave the way for this first ever MSGF program. Thank you for your opening such a remarkable door and connecting us to the beautiful world of science in global finance. 

One person in this room has helped us enormously to realize our dream of learning. That is Dr. John Yang, who is such an enthusiastic teacher and leader sharing with us all of his resources and talents. He is such a generous person who teaches the great value of leadership not by speaking but by delivering. Please allow me to thank you on behalf of the whole class for your tireless and dedicated efforts build up his great learning program for us. Thank you for providing us the real power of learning. 

As many of us enjoy the great benefits from the scholarships provided by the Program, we owe our thanks to Nasdaq OMX which is represented by Mr. Meyer Frucher. At the end of the program, we will prove to you that your forward looking decision to sponsor the MSGF program is a wise and correct one. I have to say that Nasdaq is very smart in sponsoring this very smart group of students. We have full confidence that some of us in this room will be able to list their business in Nasdaq and to prove to the world investors the value of Chinese business catalyst. 

We, the members of this class are representing the most lucky generation in the 60-year history of this great country. Many of us already have good life, good money and good social status. Many of us don’t need to earn a second master degree either to get promoted or to get a higher pay. However, we consider the aim of this learning as a duty rather than a mission. We, as the biggest beneficiaries of China’s economic success, must take up a duty to make sure that we contribute to China’s important integration into the world from the financial perspective. 

One thing I’m sure is that after this learning journey we will have more questions than answers, we will ask more than we respond, we will think more than we understand. But, the most important of all, is that we will act more than we plan. 

With the strong horizon we gain from MSGF, we will meet future challenges of this changing country. Because in the future of China, no one can get respect simply from how much he makes or how high he sits, instead we can only earn our respect by making our best efforts to bring hope to others. 

There are many other challenges for us to meet as well. With the power of learning, there’s no doubt, we will win. That is the hope we believe in, and the hope you all can believe in. 



Thank you very much.